Compared to metal wires, optical fibers have superior signal capacity and immunity to electromagnetic interference. Accordingly, optical fibers are increasingly being used for exterior wiring, such as between networking installations of a communications provider. Moreover, increasing bandwidth requirements for businesses and consumers has justified fiber penetration into customer premises, including commercial buildings and living units. Fiber to the premises (FTTP) is a term for an optical networking architecture in which optical fiber, rather than a metal loop, is used for the final leg of connectivity delivery from a communications provider to a customer premises, such as a multiple dwelling units (MDUs).
When optical fiber is pulled into a customer premises, the fiber may be twisted, bent, spliced, and stapled in order for the fiber to be routed to its destination. New types of optical fiber with minimum bend radii of <5.0 mm, known as bend-insensitive fiber, have been created that are more resistant to high losses from the bending that may occur during installation. However, these new types of fibers may be more susceptible to multi-path interference (MPI) caused by physical discontinuities. Accordingly, even with bend-insensitive fibers with RB<5.0 mm, it may be desirable to test the performance of the optical fiber to determine the best possible performance over the entire length fiber.